City begins transition to upgraded website

September 18, 2012

NEW ORLEANS, LA—Today, the City of New Orleans announced the launch of a series of upgrades to its current website that will feature a smarter design geared toward the essential services residents use the most.

“In this digital age, the City’s website has become the first point of contact for many residents who need City services and for businesses that want to work with us, “said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “It’s important for the website to be user-friendly and to show what a first class city New Orleans really is. This series of upgrades will do just that.”

Among the changes residents will notice are links to essential city services directly on the new homepage of www.nola.gov, including online payments, public meetings, latest news, data, maps and performance reports.

The City’s new public notices calendar is also prominently displayed on the updated website. This serves as a calendar for City boards, agencies and commissions. Residents have the option to subscribe to specific meetings and will be notified of any changes automatically through e-mail or text messages. A comprehensive list of City boards, agencies and commissions, including a description and member list is available on the website as well. This information has not been available in a central location until recently.

Additionally, the new site is designed to be friendly to mobile devices. The layout of pages will adjust automatically based on the size of a user's screen.

The transition is part of a series of planned upgrades to the City’s online services. Residents will notice some pages of the website are hosted at www.nola.gov, while the upgraded portions are hosted at http://new.nola.gov. The process of bringing all departments onto the new system is anticipated to be complete by summer 2013. Improvements and new online tools, such as the ability to apply for city permits, report 311 problems and search blighted properties online will continue to be added.

This is the second design overhaul of the City’s website since the Landrieu administration took office. In 2010, the City unveiled a complete redesign of its website, including changing the domain name from www.cityofno.com to www.nola.gov and promoting web pages that were most visited and most requested by residents. This latest upgrade includes a migration to a new content management system that is one-fifth the price of the previous system and easier for City staff to use. This improved usability means that when departments are added to the upgraded web site, they will be trained and fully responsible for keeping their information up to date and accurate.

The City’s Office of Information Technology & Innovation and Communications Department are responsible for the upgrades, and all web site development is being conducted exclusively with internal staff.